1/2 Ironman prep and hills

I just suddenly realized that I'm only 10 1/2 weeks out from my big race this year, my first 1/2 ironman distance aka 70.3. This is a 1.2 mile (2k) swim, then a 56 mile (90k) bike then a 13.1 mile (21.1k, or 1/2 marathon) run. It's in Vermont, and we're taking our family vacation around it, driving the nine hours or so two days before the event and then staying a few days after at the beautiful-looking Branbury State Park.

I signed up after a dismal Olympic distance triathlon last fall, (my second at that distance) where my bike seemed to be going through quicksand, (the result, I suspect, of a bad tire pump that left me semi-flat) I lost my timing chip and had to look for it in transition (found it after a good 10 minutes of looking), and ended up coming 236 of 251. What, that wasn't challenging enough for me?!?!

That's okay, I've been into the challenge since signing up. But I'm getting a little nervous now. Vermont is hilly. Very hilly. And in preparation for my first 1/2 marathon in May, I stopped doing hills because I was concentrating on increasing my distance. Oops!

So for the next eight weeks or so, I'm going to be doing lots and lots of hill runs and bikes. Luckily there are lots and lots of hills around where I live. I've done a couple of hill workouts lately, and the best was this past Sunday, which I wrote about in my last post on eatcleandiet.com. A hilly 2 1/2 k run to the top of a steep hill, ran back and did a bunch of hill repeats on a tough 375m hill, and then home. I'm doing that once a week and adding one more repeat each time I do it.

I represent The Eat-Clean Diet now so I have to make sure I do VERY well in my race!